A collective solution requires a collective effort – this simple dictum is upheld by the collaborative endeavor of Ericsson, POC and Volvo. The project entails an information sharing ambit between cyclists and cars that can potentially avoid cycling accidents that mainly occur due to obtrusive automobiles. The solution in question here pertains to a special kind of POC-made helmet that alerts the cyclist when he/she is in proximity to a Volvo vehicle.

The POC helmet, about to make its debut in CES 2015, will be a part of collective communication between the car and the cyclist. To that end, the new Volvo cars are envisioned to make use of a City Safety system, which is aided by data collected from various cycling apps (making use of GPS tracking) and traffic info. In essence, the scheme gauges the path of the motional bicycle, and its trajectory chance to collide with an incoming automobile. So, when the car detects such a collision possibility, it transmits a cell-phone signal to the POC helmet. This ‘smart’ helmet in turn flashes a warning light and emits a sound alarm – for the rider.

The car-to-car communication scope can be made even more extensive with the use of cloud-based services. This certainly bodes well for the baleful statistical side of affairs, with Volvo’s estimation that half of all bicycle-related fatalities are caused by moving vehicles. And, as for the commercial applications, such vehicular communication systems are expected to come soon to both Europe and USA.

This is what Klas Bendrik, Chief Information Officer at Volvo Cars, had to say about the upcoming tech –

The partnership between Volvo Cars, POC and Ericsson is an important milestone in investigating the next steps towards Volvo Car’s vision to build cars that will not crash. Today our City Safety system, a standard in the all-new XC90, can detect, warn and auto-brake to avoid collisions with cyclists. By exploring cloud-based safety systems, we are now getting ever closer to eliminating the remaining blind spots between cars and cyclists and by that avoid collisions.